Cop charged with child abuse after five years

MANILA, Philippines—A policeman has been haled to court on a charge of child abuse for running over the foot of a 15-year-old boy with his motorcycle and punching him in the face after the teenager accidentally hit the law officer with a golf ball.

The case for violation of the Special Protection of Children against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act was filed in the Manila Regional Trial Court on Thursday against PO3 Alfredo Dayao of Malate, Manila, for an incident that happened five years ago.

Records of the case show that the boy and a friend were playing catch with a golf ball along Paris Street in Malate in the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2008. The ball went astray, however, traveling in the direction of Dayao just as he was coming out of a gate. Dayao tried to avoid the ball but it bounced on the gate and still hit him.

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Dayao then got on his motorcycle and ran over the complainant’s foot, pinning it under the front tire. Dayao yelled, demanding to know who threw the ball, and when the boy admitted he had been playing with it, he held the boy by the shirt and punched him in the face, according to the records.

The complaint said a pedicab driver informed the boy’s mother that her son was being beaten up. When the mother arrived, Dayao said, “Ikaw ba ang nanay ng batang ito, binato ako ng bola (Are you the mother of this boy? He threw a ball at me).”

The boy’s sister, who also arrived at the scene, said Dayao also punched and kicked her mother. She embraced her mother and pleaded for Dayao to stop. Instead, the policeman got hold of a wooden sign and repeatedly hit the two women.

According to the prosecutor who conducted the preliminary investigation, Dayao did not submit any counteraffidavit. Assistant City Prosecutor Maria Cielo Rubi Galicia dismissed the original charges of attempted homicide and slight physical injury for insufficiency of evidence but recommended the child abuse charge and a bail of P80,000.